Device for making spiral wire fasteners



oct. 29, 1929. c. GRAY 1,733,961

DEVICE FOR MAKING SPIRAL WIRE FASTENERS Filed Jan. 50. 1928 Patented Oct. 29, 1929 U NIE l CHARLES P. GRAY, OF WEST CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO GRAY WIRELET CORPORATION, OF VIEST CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA DEVICE FOR MAKING SPIRAL WIRE FASTEN ERS Application led January 30, 1928. ASerial No. 250,622.V

This invention relates to improvements in devices adapted primarily for securing together sheets of paper, cardboard, cloth and other materials, and more particularly in a device of the character forming the subject of U. S. VPatent No. 1,446,343, dated Feb. 20, 1923.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a simplified and generally more efficient tool for forming the spiral coils constituting an essential part of the fastening element.

In the attached drawings:

Figure lis a side elevation of a device made in accordance with my invention;

F 2 is a detached perspective of the coilforming tool, and

Fig. 3 is a view in perspective of the iinished article in one of its forms.

With reference to the drawings, my device in one embodiment comprises a base 1 having thereon a bracket arm 2, the forward end of which is formed to constitute a guide and bearing for a vertically movable and rotary shaft 4. This shaft carries at the bottom a tool 5 which forms the principal element of the present invention and which will be described hereinafter. At the top, this shaft carries a transverse operating arm 6 by means of which the shaft may be rotated, and between the upper end of the guide 3 and a collar 7 on the hub portion of the handle 6 is confined a spring 8 which normally exerts a pressure tending to hold the shaft in an elevated position, as shown in full lines.

The base 1 forms a table beneath the tool position upon which the work or parts to be joined together are laid. In the present instance, this work is in the form of two sheets 9 and 10. In joining these sheets together, a Wire 1l is used which is passed through the sheets in the present instance in two places from the under side thereof, and in order to permit the work to lie flat upon the table 1, the table is formed with a groove 12 which receives that part of the wire 11 which underlies the work. This groove also functions to hold the wire firmly in predetermined fixed position during the tool operations hereinafterdescribed.

In order to hold the work in position while the projecting ends of the wire 11 are formed into the retaining coils, I provide in the present instance a clamp in the form of a shoe 13 which is supported at the bottom of a rod 14 guided vertically in a suitable guide 15 in the bracket 2 and normally held in a depressed work-engaging position by a spring 16 confined between the under side of the bracket arm 2 and a collar 17 at the upper end of the shoe. Pivotally secured to the bracket at a point 18 adjacent the guide 15 is a bell crank lever, one arm 19 of which constitutes a handle, while the other arm 2O is in the form of a cam whose upper curved surface engages a pin 21 on the stem 14 which projects through a slot 22 in the guide 15, as clearly. illustrated. By manipulating the handle 19, the cam 2O may be oscillated upwardly, therebyelevating the stem 14 and the shoe 13 from the table and the work which it normally engages.

The tool 5 forming the principal feature of the present invention consists of a cylindrical body portion having at its upper end a cylindrical recess for reception of the lower end of the stem 4. In the present in stance, a set screw 23 is provided by means yof which the tool Vis rigidly secured to the shaft. Centrally 0f the lower end thereof and concentric with the axis of the shaft 4 is a projection 24 which as hereinafter set forth con stitutes a vmandrel around which the end of the wire 11 is coiled. The tool further conn prises at a predetermined distance transversely from the mandrel 24 and also projecting below the lower end of the tool a cylindrical projection 25, this projection being of lesser length from the bottom surface of the tool body than the mandrel 24, as clearly shown in Fig. 1. It will be noted that both the in andrel and the projection 25 are fixed with relation to the tool body.

In operation, the work is placed on the table 1, .as illustratedin Fig. 1,with the wire 11 projecting through the sheets to be joined together. The work is so positioned on the table that the mandrel 24 when the tool 5 is lowered by pressing downwardly on the upper end of the shaft 4 engages the upper sheet immediately alongside the upwardly projecting portion of the wire 11. The projecting end Aof the wire is turned down flat against the upper face of the sheet 9, as clearly illustrated. The presser foot 13 having been permitted to engage the work, the operator first presses down onthe shaft 4 until the mandrel engages the work, and in the working position as shown in F ig. 1, it will be noted that the pro-Y jection 25 just clears the upper sheet 9. Inv

order to bringthe'tool accurately into this position, I provide a shoulder 26'on the Vshaft 4 which in the present instance is. adapted to engage the upper face of a sleeve 27 threaded into a countersunk recess in the top of the guide portion 3 of the bracket 2. This sleeve 27 constitutesV in eiect an adjustable stop which limits the downward movement ofthe tool 5 and insures its being brought into proper relation to the work by simple down ward pressure on the upper end of the shaft or upon the arm 6. After the work has beenv engaged by the tool as setforth, the shaft 4j may be rotated through the handle G whereby the projecting end of the wire 11 is engaged by the projection 25 andthe wire carried in a.

series of convolutions around the mandrel 24 to form the Vcoil 28,.this coil lying flat against the upper face of the top Vsheet 9 and binding this sheet and the sheet 10 securely'together. Thereafter the sheets mayy be re-V versed to bring the opposite extremity of the f wire 11 under the tool for formation of a Ysimilar, retaining coil at the opposite end of the wire, as illustrated in Fig. 3.` n Y I have discovered that the form of tool de-V scribed above constitutes a material improveV ment over the form shown in'my aforesaid Patent No. 1,446,343. In that instance, the'.

mandrel was formed separately from the wire-engaging projections constituting theV equivalent of the projection 25 of the presentv tool. Not only is ,that form of tool unnecessarily complicated and yrelatively expensive to manufacture, but it actually is incapable of any more eiicient operation than the' tool forming the subject of the ypresent invention."l

It will be understood that thedetails of the tool as a whole may vary largely, as alsoniay the form of the nishedfastener. j present instance, affastener is formed which In the wire and terminatingv ata point substantially in line with the axis of rotation of said body, means for axially shifting the body to bring the said projections into operative relation with work on said table, and means for rotating the body. Y

2. In a device for forming spiralwire fasteners, a rotatable body having at o-ne end a projection concentric with the aXis of rotation of said body anda second projection vtor winding the wire in spiral fashion around said first-mentionedprojection, a work table Vhaving a groove adapted to receive the said V'relatively positioned with respectto saidltool,

to permit said tool to operate upon .entend of wire projecting from said recess, and

means for axially moving and for. rotating CHARLES r. Girar' ,j

said tool.

constitutes in eiect a staplewhose ends arey formed into flat coils, as clearly illustrated. s

In other types of fastener, lthe coils may be formed at opposite ends of a straight wire f which projects through the elements ,to be? secured together.

I I claim: Y

` 1. In a device for forming spiral wire fasteners, a rotatable body having at one end a projectionconcentric with the axis of rotation of said body and a second projection for winding the wire in spiral fashion around said first-mentioned projection, a work vtable having a groove adapted to receive the said 

